Just wondering how many of you bother doing this. I hope this isn't considered rude or too personal. Depending on what mood I'm in, I'll prepare an entire brick at once while I watch a movie or something.

I usually do this:
Short scallop on #1
Side Scallop on #26
Corner short on the bottom left and top right of #14 (to rifle up to with my right thumb)
Corner short on the top left and bottom right of #38 (to rifle down to with my left thumb)

I used to put a br**th** Cr**P in the bottom card but found that I often had to "refresh it", so I started going for the scalloped first. Anyway, this allows me to access the stack in quarters, and means I am at most only 7 cards away from the desired card in an instant. It also acts as a visual guide for estimation cuts as well.

To clarify, I don't always do this, only about half the time. Depends on my mood. Just wondering if anyone else does something similar or may have a different or better system they'd like to share.

Sometimes a breather on #1, but that's about it for me.

Read only work on 18 & 35. A joker with the works.

I'm not a huge fan of putting a scallop in my cards. I find it problematic with my double lifts that affect doing a double below and above the scalloped card. Also with the scallop, the problem I get is if I angle the cards downwards, the scallop card doesn't stay flush with the deck and drops downward cause of the cut. Everyone has their opinion, and for me, I just not a fan of the scallop.

I personally Br**th** Cr**P the 1st, 12th, 28th, 38th card and mark them as well. The choice for the locations for the deck is because each of the cards are very different from eachother (I use Aronson stack and these cards are JS, 2D, 7C, 10H respectively) and are spaced enough that I won't confuse cutting between them. I won't say the effect I use, but that's my reason.

I think one thing that would be helpful when ppl are stating the work they are putting into the deck, they should also mention the rationale and reasoning of putting the work in the deck. If one of your main reasons for using mem deck is to get to a named card and cut as accurately and quickly as possible, then the breather method may be the perfect tool to accomplish this.


For me, I usually only perform 2-3 mem deck stacked effects in the middle of the card set. (usually Osterlind Challenge Mind reading, The effect is sort of mentioned above(didn't really mention it ) and a take on Osterlind's card calling inspired by the David Blaine at Cambridge performance. I will usually destroy my stack after this point. The effects I have chosen aren't really reliant on having to cut to a card accurately, and granted, the effects I have chosen could potentially be done with a cyclical stack. But I also love effects like Darwin Ortiz's Zen Master and Test your luck, and Aronson's Past, Present future and Every Body's Lazy or Michael Close's and Michael Vincent's take on Invisible Deck and Brainwave respectfully which are very very mem deck stack dependent but again these effects that I really like don't really require me to cut to a card accurately, the effects have been designed that I usually only need to determine a value of a card through very very fair conditions.

Marked Back #1
Corner Short #52

Similarly to Steven, I always mark card #1 and put a reverse breather on #52. I also put a reverse breather on one of the joker so that I have an other "locator" card when needed.

So I've been hearing these terms thrown around in a few other thread... What exactly is work? And where would be the best place to learn them?

Also I kind of understand what is being talked about here. I just want more detail.

"Work" means any kind of alterations of the cards.

breather cr**ps, corner cr**mps, sho*t cards (Normal, scallop or corner), pencil dots and the like.

-Breather in the top card.
-Mark the top card.
-Mark the 11th card (which only helps for one trick, but it's a trick I perform often enough).

Thanks!... I thought that what was going on here.

I scallop #1, corner short #26 bottom left and top right, corner short #40 bottom right and top left. I find that it helps me get to #1 easily to get back to starting position. People frequently name queen of hearts, the 26th card and the corner short helps me dribble to it easily.

I don't do any farro work with my memorized deck anymore, so I don't have to worry about the corner short cards. I went to a convention in vegas years ago, and knew that Michael Close was going to be there. So, I practiced my farros for months. When speaking with Michael, he said he doesn't do farros in performance anymore because he needs his reading glasses on to do them. It made sense to me so I stopped.

Marlo key card...varies on which card I place it.

I've recently been playing with this myself.

I started with a cut corner on 52 and 26, allowing me to cut to the centre and to reset. I use the same corner as figuring out where I am in the stack simply requires a bottom peak anyway.

I then put a tiny mark every 5th card in the top right and bottom left, and every 10th card in the top left and bottom right.

This allows me to reset the deck, and do a full table spread, and allow anyone to take any card they like, and I simply need to count to the left or right to the nearest mark to figure out the chosen card. It's an amazing affect that removes the need to peek or force in many situations.

I've also worked a marking system that allows me to tell teh difference between each marking too, so I can tell the difference between the mark on the 5, 15, 25, 35, and 45 (the same markings are used in opposite corners for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 too). The only problem I have with this is that the marks get a little more obvious and take a little more concentration. Also this is hard to read without my glasses

I don't modify any of my cards (except for the invisible deck, derp). It is easy enough to get a b*tt*m p**k, and there are all kinds of p**ks that naturally occur with cuts and flourishes. I reverse the jokers before I break in the deck so they create flawless br**th**s when I do need something to keep my place, but I nearly never use them.

Yeah, I just use p**ks as well for my stack. Too lazy to modify them, tbh.

I create a breather crimp on Four of Clubs (top card) and reverse breather crimp on the Nine of Diamonds (bottom card), even when performing the Charlier Cut, the deck effortlessly ends up in correct stack order
I prefer crimps to corner shorting and scalloping the cards because if spotted it could always be explained away as wear and tear of cards I am sure all of you who use scallops and shorts know how to conceal them properly during your routines but it is just that I am not used to it. I will probably consider using them in the future though because crimps can be tricky sometimes while corner shorts and scallops are 100% permanent. Thank you for all your tips!

Breather on the bottom card, and on the 26th.

On my Bike's I'll often put some work in for my set-up for Shufton's X-Ray. Have toyed with pin pricking specific cards, but never really got far with it. Most of my memdeck stuff I use NOCs, and even a breather crimp can look a little obvious with them.

Since this stack work is not in Asi Wind's Chapter One, I wonder if other members of the Café perform Asi's ACAAN using short cards the way I do. I use a mnemonica/Tamariz stack and I short the 8 of Hearts, 2 of Clubs, and 4 of Spades (14th, 27th, and 40th card respectively). These three short cards separate the stack into 4 equal portions. The shorts allow me to thumb count to the card much faster and without making any peeks at all. It completely transforms the playing field as before I had to do a peek and adjust, but now the peek is unnecessary because the shorts allow my thumb to serve as my eyes. My shorts are also effectively invisible to laymen so when I give them the cards to count, not one of them ever notice it. Since this effect depends on a stack and can not be shuffled, I have to do a deck switch anyway so this marked deck is not used in other effects and therefore lessen the likelihood of ever being detected. With these three short cards, I could now perform a no-peek AACAAN

No work. After a while I find I can cut to "position 1" after any random cut just by feel anyway.